Category: Articles & Commentaries

Discussions on topics of interest to drivers concerning things they may not understand about their vehicles as well as articles on the future of the auto industry.

Scion symbols page now presented by color

Scion logoScion symbols page

Our Scion symbols page has now been aligned by color. We’ve have now transformed several pages, including our primary symbols page, to reflect the new color ordering.

The page  is now ordered red through green and blue symbols. This generally provides a “mostly serious” to “simply letting you know” range. We used the term “mostly serious” for red indicators because many legacy red symbols do not point to a problem with the vehicle.

Being a set of low-priced vehicles, defunct since 2016 and made before the electronics explosion of the last decade or so, the page only holds a little over 50 entries. Regardless, the new ordering provides a cleaner, simpler option for drivers searching for information.

Cars are changing, and among those changes is the growing number of symbols and indicators that will invariably show up on your dashboard or instrument panel. Every year, new features are added to vehicles, each of which is accompanied by a new symbol or symbols and likely a new acronym.

At DashboardSymbols.com, our aim is to help you understand what is happening to your vehicle at the first sign of trouble – a new warning light illuminated on your instrument panel. Its all here on this website. Our first intention is to bring the latest technologies down to earth and understandable for everyday drivers.

The Scion symbols page can be found here.

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Remember that only proper service and repair procedures will ensure the safe and reliable operation of your car. In addition, proper safety procedures and precautions, such as the use of safety goggles, the right tools and the equipment should be followed at all times to eliminate the possibility of personal injury or improper service which could damage the vehicle or compromise its safety.

These posts are for information sharing purposes only, and should not be used in lieu of an OEM service manual or factory authorized service procedure. We are not in the auto repair business nor do we publish automotive service manuals. Nothing we include on these pages and posts has been reviewed, approved or authorized by any vehicle manufacturer.

Technology is always changing and what is current and accurate today may be literally out-of-date and inaccurate tomorrow. And when it comes to the current state of flux in the auto industry, nothing is more true.

Permanent link to this article: https://dashboardsymbols.com/2024/10/scion-symbols-page-now-presented-by-color/

Toyota symbols page joins the new color treatment list

Toyota logoToyota symbols page

Our Toyota symbols page has now been aligned by color. We’ve have now transformed several pages, including our primary symbols page, to reflect the new color ordering.

The page features a number approaching 100 indicators, now ordered red through black, white or gray scale. This generally provides a “mostly serious” to “simply letting you know” range. We used the term “mostly serious” for red indicators because many legacy red symbols do not point to a problem with the vehicle.

Regardless, the new ordering provides a cleaner, simpler option for drivers searching for information.

Cars are changing, and among those changes is the growing number of symbols and indicators that will invariably show up on your dashboard or instrument panel. Every year, new features are added to vehicles, each of which is accompanied by a new symbol or symbols and likely a new acronym.

At DashboardSymbols.com, our aim is to help you understand what is happening to your vehicle at the first sign of trouble – a new warning light illuminated on your instrument panel. Its all here on this website. Our first intention is to bring the latest technologies down to earth and understandable for everyday drivers.

The Toyota symbols page can be found here.

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Remember that only proper service and repair procedures will ensure the safe and reliable operation of your car. In addition, proper safety procedures and precautions, such as the use of safety goggles, the right tools and the equipment should be followed at all times to eliminate the possibility of personal injury or improper service which could damage the vehicle or compromise its safety.

These posts are for information sharing purposes only, and should not be used in lieu of an OEM service manual or factory authorized service procedure. We are not in the auto repair business nor do we publish automotive service manuals. Nothing we include on these pages and posts has been reviewed, approved or authorized by any vehicle manufacturer.

Technology is always changing and what is current and accurate today may be literally out-of-date and inaccurate tomorrow. And when it comes to the current state of flux in the auto industry, nothing is more true.

Permanent link to this article: https://dashboardsymbols.com/2024/10/toyota-symbols-page-joins-the-new-color-treatment-list/

Pontiac symbols page gets the new color treatment

Pontiac logoPontiac symbols page

Our Pontiac symbols page has now been aligned by color. We’ve have now transformed several pages, including our primary symbols page, to reflect a color ordering.

As a testament to the growth of technology and the accompanying indicators, the Pontiac holds just over 40 symbols. The majority of manufacturers have this number to near 100 and more.

Pontiac as a manufacturer has been defunct since 2010. Nevertheless, we will keep the page for drivers of the cars who likely have few places to turn for help. We also have pages for Holden, Mercury, Oldsmobile, Saab, Saturn and Scion, all of whom have faded from the scene. We have a Fisker page as well, a company whose status remains in limbo…

The page’s indicators are now ordered red through white, which generally provides a “mostly serious” to “simply letting you know” range. We used the term “mostly serious” for red indicators because many of them do not point to problem with the vehicle.

Regardless, the new ordering provides a cleaner, simpler option for drivers searching for information.

Cars are changing, and among those changes is the growing number of symbols and indicators that will invariably show up on your dashboard or instrument panel. Every year, new features are added to vehicles, each of which is accompanied by a new symbol or symbols and likely a new acronym.

At DashboardSymbols.com, our aim is to help you understand what is happening to your vehicle at the first sign of trouble – a new warning light illuminated on your instrument panel. Its all here on this website. Our first intention is to bring the latest technologies down to earth and understandable for everyday drivers.

The Pontiac symbols page can be found here.

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Remember that only proper service and repair procedures will ensure the safe and reliable operation of your car. In addition, proper safety procedures and precautions, such as the use of safety goggles, the right tools and the equipment should be followed at all times to eliminate the possibility of personal injury or improper service which could damage the vehicle or compromise its safety.

These posts are for information sharing purposes only, and should not be used in lieu of an OEM service manual or factory authorized service procedure. We are not in the auto repair business nor do we publish automotive service manuals. Nothing we include on these pages and posts has been reviewed, approved or authorized by any vehicle manufacturer.

Technology is always changing and what is current and accurate today may be literally out-of-date and inaccurate tomorrow. And when it comes to the current state of flux in the auto industry, nothing is more true.

Permanent link to this article: https://dashboardsymbols.com/2024/10/pontiac-symbols-page-gets-the-new-color-treatment/

Oldsmobile symbols page now color coded

Oldsmobile logoOldsmobile symbols page

Our Oldsmobile symbols page has now been aligned by color. We’ve have now transformed several pages, including our primary symbols page, to reflect a color ordering.

Oldsmobile as a manufacturer has been defunct since 2004. Nevertheless, we will keep the page for drivers of the cars who likely have few places to turn for help. We also have pages for Holden, Mercury, Pontiac, Saab, Saturn and Scion, all of whom have faded from the automotive scene.

As a testament to the growth of technology and the accompanying indicators, the Oldsmobile page holds less than 50 symbols. The majority of manufacturers now use as many as 100 and more.

Cars are changing, and among those changes is the growing number of symbols and indicators that will invariably show up on your dashboard or instrument panel. Every year, new features are added to vehicles, each of which is accompanied by a new symbol or symbols and likely a new acronym.

At DashboardSymbols.com, our aim is to help you understand what is happening to your vehicle at the first sign of trouble – a new warning light illuminated on your instrument panel. Its all here on this website. Our first intention is to bring the latest technologies down to earth and understandable for everyday drivers.

The Oldsmobile symbols page can be found here.

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Remember that only proper service and repair procedures will ensure the safe and reliable operation of your car. In addition, proper safety procedures and precautions, such as the use of safety goggles, the right tools and the equipment should be followed at all times to eliminate the possibility of personal injury or improper service which could damage the vehicle or compromise its safety.

These posts are for information sharing purposes only, and should not be used in lieu of an OEM service manual or factory authorized service procedure. We are not in the auto repair business nor do we publish automotive service manuals. Nothing we include on these pages and posts has been reviewed, approved or authorized by any vehicle manufacturer.

Technology is always changing and what is current and accurate today may be literally out-of-date and inaccurate tomorrow. And when it comes to the current state of flux in the auto industry, nothing is more true.

Permanent link to this article: https://dashboardsymbols.com/2024/10/oldsmobile-symbols-page-now-color-coded/

Boy did we mess up our primary picture symbols page!

DashboardSymbols.comPrimary picture symbols page

Its repaired now, but we managed to completely screw up the transformation of our primary picture symbols page! A whole lot of original coding somehow stuck from its previous iteration.

It might be obvious to those viewing the page, which is here, that the symbols are arranged in tables. Well, somehow the old tables got embedded in to the new ones! They were a terrible mess that no one could possibly have navigated.

The bottom line is, we didn’t proof read the page until much later. We assumed we had done it properly. Lesson learned…

And if you have a Wordpress site as we do, and this works with other web development tools, the solution to unexpected coding embedded in a page is to copy everything into a text only file. All the formatting falls away — the formatting you don’t want as well as what you want. The page will need to be formatted again — properly — but its a relatively quick and simple fix.

Cars are changing, and among those changes is the growing number of symbols and indicators that will invariably show up on your dashboard or instrument panel. Every year, new features are added to vehicles, each of which is accompanied by a new symbol or symbols and likely a new acronym.

At DashboardSymbols.com, our aim is to help you understand what is happening to your vehicle at the first sign of trouble – a new warning light illuminated on your instrument panel. Its all here on this website. Our first intention is to bring the latest technologies down to earth and understandable for everyday drivers.

Again, the primary picture symbols page is found here.

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Remember that only proper service and repair procedures will ensure the safe and reliable operation of your car. In addition, proper safety procedures and precautions, such as the use of safety goggles, the right tools and the equipment should be followed at all times to eliminate the possibility of personal injury or improper service which could damage the vehicle or compromise its safety.

These posts are for information sharing purposes only, and should not be used in lieu of an OEM service manual or factory authorized service procedure. We are not in the auto repair business nor do we publish automotive service manuals. Nothing we include on these pages and posts has been reviewed, approved or authorized by any vehicle manufacturer.

Technology is always changing and what is current and accurate today may be literally out-of-date and inaccurate tomorrow. And when it comes to the current state of flux in the auto industry, nothing is more true.

Permanent link to this article: https://dashboardsymbols.com/2024/10/boy-did-we-mess-up-our-primary-picture-symbols-page/

Our primary picture symbols page has been completely transformed

DashboardSymbols.comPrimary picture symbols page

We just completed the transformation of our primary picture symbols page. It now moves through picture symbols by color, red, yellow/amber/orange (depending on how a driver sees the color), on to green and blue and finally black and white and gray scale indicators.

We kept three other sub-groups on the page as well, including hybrid and electric vehicle indicators, diesel-powered vehicle symbols, and a segment on information displays and message centers. This last one is where the black and white and gray scale indicators now appear.

As we noted in a previous post, our main page, which hosts all the images that are not text, had become a difficult mess to get through and was organized by technology categories. However, this assumes a driver even knows what tech category the mystery light he or she is searching for belongs to!

This is a massive oversite on our part.

We are thus committed to re-ordering everything on the site by color. It will be a long slog, as there are about 50 pages that will need the work. But the work will get done, and we sincerely hope that it simplifies your experience.

Cars are changing, and among those changes is the growing number of symbols and indicators that will invariably show up on your dashboard or instrument panel. Every year, new features are added to vehicles, each of which is accompanied by a new symbol or symbols and likely a new acronym.

At DashboardSymbols.com, our aim is to help you understand what is happening to your vehicle at the first sign of trouble – a new warning light illuminated on your instrument panel. Its all here on this website. Our first intention is to bring the latest technologies down to earth and understandable for everyday drivers.

The primary picture symbols page is found here.

And know that we still recommend searching by manufacturer here.

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Remember that only proper service and repair procedures will ensure the safe and reliable operation of your car. In addition, proper safety procedures and precautions, such as the use of safety goggles, the right tools and the equipment should be followed at all times to eliminate the possibility of personal injury or improper service which could damage the vehicle or compromise its safety.

These posts are for information sharing purposes only, and should not be used in lieu of an OEM service manual or factory authorized service procedure. We are not in the auto repair business nor do we publish automotive service manuals. Nothing we include on these pages and posts has been reviewed, approved or authorized by any vehicle manufacturer.

Technology is always changing and what is current and accurate today may be literally out-of-date and inaccurate tomorrow. And when it comes to the current state of flux in the auto industry, nothing is more true.

Permanent link to this article: https://dashboardsymbols.com/2024/10/our-primary-picture-symbols-page-has-been-completely-transformed/

Kia Niro EV first impressions

Kia Niro EV

The lease on my Polestar 2 recently expired, and I purchased a pre-owned 2022 Kia Niro EV outright (22,000 miles). Over the last few years a rather healthy used EV market has developed, which is great for the industry.

The Kia does not have the prestige of the Polestar but there were a number of reasons why I chose it. The primary one one was my experience driving a rented Hyundai Kona EV while the Polestar was down for body repair. The car, while quite small, was surprisingly capable and full of most of the same features as the Polestar. Hyundai has proven itself a capable EV maker, and Kia is a chip off the block.

There are some things I miss about the Polestar, the surround view camera being the biggest, but several things I don’t miss at all, the center nav stack being the largest. The Niro‘s is so much better thought out.

In the Polestar, if you wanted to switch from media to radio, you had to switch screens. That’s a physical button on the Kia. But its behavior in operation is standout. You can change a pre-set radio station on the steering wheel, which was the same as the Polestar. But unless you had memorized the stations while on the nav screen, to see the new station again required changing screens! In the Kia, the new station is displayed for a few seconds on the far side of the screen! Beautiful.

Plus it picks up the media from the phone without a hitch, while this was always a struggle for the Polestar. Further, the overall sound quality is superior in the Kia. The Polestar‘s front center speaker so dominated the output that I simply reverted to keeping the front speakers turned off.

A surprising advantage not given much attention is the Kia‘s efficiency. Its EPA range is 250 miles. However, it has consistently stayed at about 280 miles! That’s on the order of 4.4 miles per kW from its 64 kW battery, easily one of the highest available. We covered EV efficiency’s here.

I’m quite satisfied with the purchase.

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Remember that only proper service and repair procedures will ensure the safe and reliable operation of your car. In addition, proper safety procedures and precautions, such as the use of safety goggles, the right tools and the equipment should be followed at all times to eliminate the possibility of personal injury or improper service which could damage the vehicle or compromise its safety.

These posts are for information sharing purposes only, and should not be used in lieu of an OEM service manual or factory authorized service procedure. We are not in the auto repair business nor do we publish automotive service manuals. Nothing we include on these pages and posts has been reviewed, approved or authorized by any vehicle manufacturer.

Technology is always changing and what is current and accurate today may be literally out-of-date and inaccurate tomorrow. And when it comes to the current state of flux in the auto industry, nothing is more true.

Permanent link to this article: https://dashboardsymbols.com/2024/10/kia-niro-ev-first-impressions/